Last May I related in this column my numerous and colorful encounters with scorpions (such as discovering them on my bath towel or inside my pajamas), adding, happily, that after 32 years of living, hiking and camping in Mexico I had never been stung by a scorpion.

Now I can report that, at last, I have joined the ranks of The Stung and can describe the symptoms, in case you someday happen to experience something similar and wonder what manner of creature got you.

My story begins just where I am right now, sitting at the computer. It was 4 p.m. Suddenly I felt something like a pin prick on top of my right knee. I stood up, shook my leg and saw nothing. “OK, whatever it is must be inside my pants,” I concluded, taking them off and turning them inside out, but nothing, neither ant, spider, centipede or scorpion did I see. My knee looked normal. There was no obvious puncture wound, no swelling or discoloration, but it was now sensitive to touch and slightly painful in some spots.

At 8 p.m. I began to feel strange things in my mouth. The tip of my tongue was tingling wildly!I drank water and the inside of my throat felt very strange, as if it were coated with crumpled cellophane.An hour later even my teeth seemed to be tingling. I took a very light antihistamine called Loratadina and went to bed. Although my knee now felt somewhat painful, I slept.